WHO maps dangerous misuse of antibiotics

The World Health Organization warned yesterday that antibiotics consumption is dangerously high in some countries while a shortage in others is spurring risky misuse, driving the emergence of deadly superbug infections.  In a first, the United Nations health agency said it had collated data on antibiotic use across large parts of the world and had found huge differences in consumption.

The report, based on 2015 data from 65 countries and regions, showed a significant difference in consumption rates from as low as around four so-called defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 inhabitants per day in Burundi to more than 64 in Mongolia. “Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the leading causes of antimicrobial resistance,” Suzanne Hill, head of WHO’s essential medicines unit, said in a statement.

“Without effective antibiotics and other antimicrobials, we will lose our ability to treat common infections like pneumonia,” she warned. In Europe, which provided the most complete data for the report, the average antibiotic consumption was nearly 18 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day. But within the region, Turkey, which ranked the highest at over 38 DDD, showed nearly five times higher consumption than the lowest consumer-country Azerbaijan, which counted fewer than eight DDD.

WHO acknowledged the picture of how antibiotics are used around the world remains far from complete. Monday’s overview, for instance, includes only four countries in Africa, three in the Middle East and six in the Asia-Pacific region. Notably missing from the chart are the United States, China and India.